


Redemption

by Riven214



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-15
Packaged: 2018-02-13 05:11:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2138229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riven214/pseuds/Riven214
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor dropped to his knees, “you were dead, brother.”</p><p>Loki laughed sharply, pointing to Coulson, “Yes, but then again, so was he, and by my hand no less. Things are not always as they seem….."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> Post-Thor:The Dark World and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 1.

Phil had long ago lost track of how many days, weeks, months, they’d been there. He’d kept his good humor longer than most would, but eventually, that was gone too. He no longer taunted his captors with cryptic jokes and sarcasm. The days they didn’t drag him out for interrogation he spent curled silently on the floor, his torn and bloody Armani suit doing little to protect him from the chill and the despair.

The blond god fared only slightly better, his silence appearing to be more a serene meditation than the devastating muteness of his broken cellmate. Then again, he was receiving none of the sadistic, calculated torture that Coulson endured on a regular basis. 

The two men hadn’t spoken in ages, and had begun making eye contact less and less frequently. Thor couldn’t bring himself to look at the shell Coulson had become. His initial mischievous anger had been replaced with the dutiful defiance of a highly trained intelligence agent after the first few months, but now only the occasional flash of awareness slid across his face like the clouds of a gathering storm. Perhaps he was still the sharp, deceptive agent deep inside, perhaps he was still working on that escape plan; but Thor could see no evidence of it, and the guilt he felt every time Phil was dragged from their cell kept him silent as well.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thor was pulled from his morbid, half-formed thoughts by the shuffling of feet down the hallway, more of them than usual, and the muffled, rapidly spoken words of a man trying, perchance, to hide his panic with flippant one liners and silver tongued promises. The voice was so familiar, too familiar. Thor exhaled audibly, dropping his head into his hands and silently cursing his mind for playing the cruelest of tricks on him, for conjuring the voice of the man he most loved and hated in this, his greatest hour of need. 

The feet were getting nearer, the voice louder – Thor lifted his head to find Coulson staring at him. Phil’s face was earnest, but otherwise devoid of expression. Nonetheless, Thor knew what it meant. Phil heard the voice too. It was real. Thor jumped to his feet and struggled against his chains, yelling maniacally. 

“Loki! Loooooooki!!” His deep baritone resonated down the hallways.  
Immediately, the voice stopped, then returned in a quiet, hurried murmur – one that sounded suspiciously like pleading. The feet continued their approach.

The door to the adjacent cell was swung open, and a thinner, wearier version of his wayward brother was deposited violently onto his hands and knees. Thor’s eager, frantic eyes met Loki’s through the bars separating them, freezing Loki in his gaze. Loki remained seemingly paralyzed for a few moments, still in disbelief, before slowly drawing himself to his feet and regaining his composure.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He spat out incredulously. 

Thor leaned into his chains, reaching for Loki, “Brother….”

“I’m not your brother.” 

“Would you wound me even now? When I have nothing left?”

Loki sneered and turned away, retreated to the corner and slid down the wall until he was seated, a reflection of another time he had been so imprisoned.

Thor dropped to his knees, “you were dead, brother.”

Loki laughed sharply, pointing to Coulson, “Yes, but then again, so was he, and by my hand no less. Things are not always as they seem…..what is he doing in this realm?”

Thor felt suddenly exhausted and shamed, unable to meet Loki’s inquiring eyes, “they came for me, but found that he was the greater prize.” 

Loki observed the man on the floor, who hadn’t moved a muscle with his arrival. Phil’s eyes slid up to meet those of his one time murderer. Loki held his gaze as he muttered, “yes….I can see that.”

Loki then closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, ignoring all of Thor’s subsequent entreaties. Thor eventually angered, grew tired of his unmet exertions, and lapsed into silence as well.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thor woke to find Coulson sitting against the wall and Loki mirroring his position in the neighboring cell. They were staring at each other intently, with purpose. Twitches of Loki’s lips seemed to be answered with a narrowing of Coulson’s eyelids, almost as if they were having a silent conversation. Thor quickly dismissed this theory; while the true extent of Loki’s powers was unknown to him, Phil was only human, after all, and not capable of such things. 

Thor made himself known, “brother, please, I beg you, talk to me.” 

Phil and Loki broke eye contact immediately. Loki shot Thor an annoyed look, “there is nothing to say, brother.” 

Thor balked, “but you redeemed yourself to me on Svartalfheim, you gave your life for mine.”

Loki laughed, “Redemption? Don’t speak to me of redemption, there is no room for it in this life. You, simple brother, only know the half of it.”

The echo of boots down the hallway abruptly silenced both men and they turned to face the door of their respective cells.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coulson had been gone for what seemed like days, made even longer by Loki’s refusal to acknowledge Thor. Instead, Loki sat against the wall with closed eyes, apparently lost in thought, or meditation, or sleep.

When they did return Coulson to the cold cement floor, missing a pinky finger and a few fingernails, he was wild-eyed and agitated. Instead of exiting and locking the door behind them as usual, the guards began to make their way toward Thor, one brandishing the key to his shackles and another a syringe. Coulson hurriedly crawled to the bars separating him from Loki.

“Loki, now, now, it has to be now,” he whispered from his dry, shredded throat.

Loki looked to his brother, and his hard face softened briefly before he began yelling at the guards in a language unknown to Thor. His words had the guards approaching the bars, obviously eager to hear more. Loki leaned forward and began whispering in the guard leader’s ear. 

Moments later, Loki calmly allowed the guards to manhandle him from his cell without so much as a look back at Thor and Coulson.

Thor bewilderedly turned to Coulson, “Coulson! What is this deceit? Have you a plan with Loki? What sorcery did he bestow on the guards?” 

Coulson smiled sadly through a split lip, “no sorcery, Thor, he simply made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”

“Coulson, what does this mean?”

Coulson shook his head, looked away and dropped the rest of his broken body to the floor.

“I demand that you explain this!” the roar was deafening the their small cell, but there was no response from the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A disheveled Loki was guided back through his cell door, visibly shaking and damp with perspiration. He was more pale than Thor had ever seen him, “brother…Loki…..”

Loki doubled over and retched, holding his hand out in front of him, as if in an attempt to push Thor’s concern away. After it passed, Loki nodded meaningfully at Coulson, who began to gather himself to his feet with the help of the cell bars.

“Prepare yourself, Thor, it’s time to go.” Phil’s voice was thin but confident.

As if on cue, the guards opened Coulson and Thor’s cell door and threw a set of keys at Coulson. Phil grabbed the keys and went to work on Thor’s chains. Thor remained speechless and immobile while Phil dropped the shackles from his wrists and ankles, but became quickly defiant when Phil attempted to pull him toward the cell door.

“No! I will not leave my brother,” he was at the bars, reaching for Loki, who had retreated to his corner, out of Thor’s reach.

Coulson blinked and took a slow breath, as if preparing himself for a rehearsed performance, “Thor, please, I can’t take much more, you have to help me,” he held up a mangled hand, “they’ve already started taking pieces.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I will come back for you, brother!” Thor yelled as he hurried Coulson down the hallway, “On my honor, I will free you!”

“No,” Loki smiled in the dark, “you won’t.”


End file.
